Microsoft to add real-time audio transcription feature in Word

Microsoft is adding an audio transcription feature on Word which will be available from now. Transcribe in Word will be available in the online version of Word for Microsoft 365 subscribers, and this will offer an easy hack to the users to automatically transcribe audio.

Microsoft is supporting the existing audio files and the convenience to record conversations directly on Word for the web and to automatically transcribe them.

Microsoft's AI will separate each speaker and break the down conversation into sections for a transcribed conversation, which can be easily played back, edited and inserted into a Word document.

This transcribe feature also supports audio or video that you might have captured elsewhere and it will support up to 200MB of MP3, WAV, M4A, or MP4 files. Processing time for these files will differ if you are uploading separate files, but it will be much faster if you are recording on Word itself.

Any audio from your PC can be captured, and you can use it to transcribe meetings, calls and even YouTube videos. Word can also capture audio from your laptop and PC's microphone.

Microsoft is targeting journalists to transcribe interviews, students to record lectures and anyone who wants to transcribe meetings and calls.

As of now, Transcribe is being launched initially on Word for web, but later this year the feature is going to be available on Word for iOS and Android. Only the English language will be supported, and it may get expand to other languages soon.

Microsoft has limited transcription to Microsoft 365 subscribers. However, this comes with a limit to five-hours monthly for uploaded audio, and for now there is no possibility to extend this transcription time. But there are no transcription limits for audio recorded on Word directly.

For uploaded audio, this works only for 300 minutes per month. Competitors such as Otter.ai offers 600 minutes per month for free of charge.